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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Circus
by Britney Spears
Britney tries for another comeback with her sixth album, which features 'Womanizer,' her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single since '...Baby One More Time.'
| LABEL: |
Jive |
| RELEASE DATE: |
02 December 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Pop, Dance |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Sputnikmusic
Circus is a top-rate pop album that, with a little bit of justice, will be afforded the same sort of longevity as her brilliant early singles.
80
Billboard
The singer does double duty as a dance diva and brokenhearted balladeer. It's no easy feat, but when Spears shoves aside the tabloid trauma and hooks up with the right producers--on this album it's Guy Sigsworth, Danja, Dr. Luke and Max Martin--she is in a class of her own.
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
For better or worse, Spears is, as she says on the title track, "a put-on-a-show type of girl," and when she sticks to that credo, Circus works.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Halfway through, Circus shifts from defiant booty calls to subtler material; suddenly, it's a first-rate electro-pop album.
70
Rolling Stone
The clubby, adventurous pop on her sixth album--her first since getting committed and losing custody of her kids--would have made a fine follow-up to 2003's In the Zone.
70
The New York Times
Most of her new songs are crisp, cunning dance-pop with a touch of schoolyard singsong. Just before they grow mechanical, they’re zapped with new effects or catchy melodic interludes.
70
Vibe
Tipping a decade long residency within the music industry, Spears’ “comeback” is more so a restoration than a reinvention.
70
Boston Globe
The fistful of dance tunes are fashionably stern, saddled with ominous strut and anonymous throb. But Britney is a palpable presence here, a flesh-and-blood singer.
70
Dot Music
If Circus had ended at eight songs, it would be a curveball pop classic but sadly--as with recent Beyonce, Alesha Dixon and Pussycat Dolls releases--the album bloats to twice that length.
60
The Guardian
Circus isn't bad as pop albums go, but whether by default or design, it's substantially less edgy and exciting than its predecessor.
60
Blender
Trying to express her actual feelings, instead of inhabiting a fantasy, she leaves us looking for an authenticity and vulnerability that isn’t in her skill set.
60
PopMatters
Not everything hits the target, even with her hands gripped tightly around the controls, but she’s offered us something intermittently wonderful that proves she can still black us out even when she’s on the up and up.
60
All Music Guide
If she feels marginally more connected here than she did on "Blackout," it's a Pyrrhic victory, as Circus never feels as sleek or addictive as its predecessor.
60
Slant Magazine
Wildly if transitorily enjoyable at turns, vacuous and ignorable at others, Circus doesn't quite feel like a comeback, but I'm sure Brit's not above merely bringing pre-comeback.
60
musicOMH.com
Obviously all is still not perfect in Britney's world, but Circus still does more than enough to remind us of why she's one of the world's most iconic pop stars.
50
New Musical Express
Her voice--treated and autotuned to within an inch of its life throughout--still sounds like that of the Mouseketeer who brought us '...Baby One More Time’, with every breathy “Mmmm… yeah!” and all the oh-so-naughty lyrics, such as the ones above, sounding forced and unconvincing. Of course, on a large number of the tracks here she has the solidly cool-sounding (no doubt expensive) backdrop of futur’n’b pop.
50
Los Angeles Times
The cartoonish sound compensates for Spears' lack of range and lung power by allowing her to ham it up.
50
Hartford Courant
It's too bad the best songs here don't really match up with her best performances, but that's nothing new for Spears.
40
NOW Magazine
Spears is immersed in an often trite, intensely narcissistic look at her existence, crafted almost entirely by songwriters other than herself. That’s not to say that some of the songs aren’t catchy or danceable, but they’re wasted on a singer who brings no real personality along for the ride.
40
Hot Press
Cynical vocodered mediocrity.
31
cokemachineglow
Circus is a saddening step back to her glossy yet unengaging "In the Zone" era, which is a shame.
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 114 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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